Sauvage innocence

Many films in this programme are soaked in drugs, addiction, criminality or intoxication, but this film by Garrel undoubtedly shows the most convincing and extreme involvement of drugs with film making itself. A film about film. A drugs film about a drugs film. The film maker François Mauge wants to make a film that warns about the dangers of drugs. His wife has recently died of an overdose. He casts the young actress Lucie in a role based on his own late wife. Lucie becomes so engrossed in the role that she falls in love with François and also takes on the dead woman’s drug habit. The production of the film gets into financial difficulties, after which François approaches an underworld acquaintance of his wife. But to get money from this acquaintance, he has to smuggle a large amount of heroin over the border. Sauvage innocence is a film in which the frontiers transgressed (morality, attitudes to drugs and also of countries) inevitably lead to death, sadness and mourning. Just like Garrel’s earlier film J’entends plus la guitare, also included in this program, this film was inspired by the relationship that the film maker had with Nico, rock musician, model and famous heroin user. (GjZ)